A different view ...

... of poetry: Mere Fondness for the Beautiful — A Post by Stephen Burt. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Which is to say that our little guy is, at least in this respect, a bit like John Keats, who wrote to Richard Woodhouse in December 1818: “I feel assured I should write from the mere yearning and fondness I have for the Beautiful even if my night’s labours should be burnt every morning and no eye ever shine upon them.” Keats wanted an audience—he even wanted to help cause social change (”I am ambitious of doing the world some good,” the same letter admits). But he maintained a relation to his art of poetry prior to, and more durable than, his thoughts (and he had many thoughts) about who would read it and whether they understood.